The Mysterious Disappearance of Cato Evans
by FinnickOdair-Will-Live-Forever
Summary: When Cato Evans the local college heartthrob mysteriously disappears in the small town of Panem, Detective Johanna Mason is straight on the case. Did his roommate Finnick have anything to do with it? Was it the head cheerleader? Perhaps it was Katniss the spunky heiress, or Glimmer the foreign beauty? At the end of the day the only thing left to say will be, 'Book 'em, Danno.'
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys, I haven't written anything in a while and I'm sorry for that. I'm super busy nowadays but a week of school will give me time to write chapters and finish off this new idea I've had brewing in my head for a while. I'm only planning on having like five chapters, I hope you enjoy it. :)**

**I don't own The Hunger Games.**

Detective Mason took a long sip of her coffee and sighed contently. It was a sunny day, she was sat in the park enjoying the warmth, she had a doughnut in one hand and her coffee in the other- what more could she ask for?

Peace on Earth. Crime to end worldwide. Criminal organisations to be taken down for good. Frauders to vanish, thieves to die, those who stole candy from babies to give back what they had taken. Nope, even on a nice hot day like this, the world was corrupt. It was broken. Detective Mason was adamant that she, with her dark sunglasses and killer poker face, would be the one to save it. She was the youngest detective the Panem Town police force had ever had, and she was the best by far. Yes, things were good for her now- and the criminals of the world knew it.

She snapped back to focus. Park surveillance wasn't in her job description, but just because _she _had the day off didn't mean that the petty thieves and vandals did as well. Her phone went off, the theme from Rocky as her ringtone.

"Mason." She answered after flipping it open.

"Johanna, you're needed at the lake. I know it's supposed to be your day off, but the boss was adamant. We need you for this one."

Johanna pushed her sunglasses up her nose and smirked.

"I'm on my way."

…

"So what have we got here, Beetee?" Detective Mason asked Panem Town's best crime scene technician.

"Look over there." He gestured to where a crane was lifting a rusted white pick-up truck out of the clear blue water.

"I've examined these skid tracks." Beetee continued. The driver skidded on this fish oil in the road and veered off towards the lake. They look to be around three days old."

"Hmm." Johanna ran a finger across one of the indents in the ground. It came away slightly dusted in dry mud. "Fish oil in the road? It sounds like an accident to me. Why have I been called in?"

"Because the driver's brakes were cut. I don't know this for sure until I check the truck, but these uninterrupted skid tracks make no sense. The driver would have tried the brakes." Beetee explained. The two of them started to walk over to the vehicle, which had successfully been lifted from the lake and was now sat on the banks covered in weeds.

"Driver's name?" The detective asked bluntly. She wasn't one to use ten words when she could suffice with just two.

"The vehicle is registered to a 'Cato Evans'. A brief background check has told us that he's aged nineteen, in his second year at Panem Town University. He works weekends as a kids' football coach and this is his address." Beetee handed Johanna a slip of paper with his dorm number and the campus address sprawled across it.

"Got a body?" She asked.

"No, but we're still looking .Ask around though- this is definitely suspicious." He opened up the car, confirming his theory. The brake wire was cut.

"Hmm." Johanna tapped a finger against her chin. Sunglasses firmly in place, she turned and walked away from the crime scene.

_Let the interrogations begin._

…

Cato Evans' dorm room was a mess. Empty pizza boxes and beer cans littered the floor and tables, grease stained napkins lined the couch like pillows and grass-stained football kits had been tossed onto the beds.

"Um…Can I help you?" A bronze haired young man asked when Johanna burst into the room unannounced. She tapped at the shiny golden badge attached to her belt loop.

"Detective Mason, Panem Town Police Department. I'm here concerning the recent disappearance of Mr Cato Evans." She answered, scanning the room quickly. From a first glance she saw nothing, but if she had learnt one thing from her time as a detective it was that there were always clues lurking beneath.

"Ah, hell." The boy muttered. "I just thought he was taking some time out to think, visiting his mom or something. He's gone?"

"What's your name, son?" The detective asked, ignoring his question.

"Finnick. Finnick Odair. And don't call me son- you're only like three years older than me." Finnick said, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly.

"I'll call you whatever the damn hell I want, _son_. Mind if I take a quick look around?" She asked.

"Knock yourself out." Finnick sighed and flopped down onto his bed. "So what's going on exactly?"

"I can't disclose too many details yet, but we've found his car." Johanna picked up a framed photo of her victim with a smiling dark haired girl.

"That's Clove." Finnick explained. "His girlfriend."

"Hmm." Johanna opened his drawers, looking through each one vigorously.

"Who's this?" She held up a drivers licence sized picture of a blonde in a tank top and shorts that she found in the second drawer.

"Glimmer. He put that picture in there ages ago. He met her like a year before he stated dating Clove, in Brazil. I guess he never really forgot about her."

Johanna searched the rest of the room, but found nothing except from more pizza crusts and old socks.

"Know much about fish oil?" Johanna asked, turning on Finnick.

"_Fish oil? _No. Well, only that I have class with the heiress of the Omega Protein company. You know, that huge one based down in Texas? She's loaded. I think they have a warehouse down here somewhere."

"Did she have any sort of relationship with Cato Evans?"

"Her relationship with Cato?" Finnick chuckled. "She _hated _him. He was never quite sure why, but that girl really had it in for him. Do you think she could have had anything to do with this?"

I can't discuss that with you, Odair. Do you know where she lives?" Johanna asked, handing him her notebook and pencil.

"Yeah, off campus." Finnick wrote down her address and handed the paper back. "She's kind of a recluse."

"Thanks. I'll be in touch." Johanna turned and placed a hand on the doorknob.

"Oh and Finnick?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't leave town."


	2. Chapter 2

**I don't own The Hunger Games.**

"Okay." Detective Johanna Mason muttered to herself as she strolled down the wooded path to Katniss Everdeen's off-campus address. "Let's re-cap what I already know."

Cato Evans was missing.

His car had slid on fish oil in the road and his brake wire had been cut, so he had spiralled into the lake.

No body had been found, so this was being treated as a missing person's case, not a homicide.

Katniss Everdeen, heiress to the Omega Protein Company, hated him. She had easy access to all the fish oil she wanted.

Cato had a long term girlfriend, Clove. He possibly could have cheated on her with Glimmer whilst in Brazil.

As Johanna walked, she thought up different theories in her head. Katniss could have done it out of hatred. Clove could have done it because of Glimmer. Glimmer might had done it because of Clove. The girls could have acted together because he was seeing both of them, and enlisted Katniss to help them out. Finnick may have been jealous of all attention Cato got, and done it himself- he knew where the warehouse was.

"Hello?" Katniss answered the door after the detective knocked three times. Her house was small, with a thatched roof and huge pine trees.

"Detective Mason, here on official police business." Johanna explained, tapping the golden badge attached to the side of her belt.

"Oh. Come in." Katniss opened the door wider and Johanna stepped inside the room. If she thought Katniss' appearance had been strange, with her pink streaked hair and nose and eyebrow piercings, then the inside of the house was fairly normal. It was just like any other cabin in the woods, with a wood burner and a creaky old staircase.

"Why do you live in the woods?" She asked.

"There's only a select few people that I like. The ones that I don't like tend not to come to the woods." Katniss explained. "Would you like a drink?"

"No. What I would really like, Miss Everdeen, are some answers. I've heard you're not a fan of Cato Evans. Is that correct?"

"That asshole?" Katniss scoffed, sitting down on her orange tatty couch. "_No_."

"So did you think that maybe you would…Make him disappear?" Johanna asked, sitting opposite her on the coffee table.

"What? What the hell's going on?" Katniss asked. She looked confused, but that could easily be faked.

"Cato Evans is missing. His car slid on a strategically placed puddle of fish oil and his car skidded into the lake because _someone _cut his brake wire." The detective leaned closer to Katniss with narrowed eyes.

"I didn't do it!" Katniss yelped. "I could never do that to someone!"

"Really?" Johanna asked doubtfully, pointing in turn to the deer heads that hung mounted on the walls and the bow and quiver of arrows that leaned against the far wall.

"Okay, so I hunt in hunting season. That's not a crime- and I could never kill a human!" She protested.

"I never said anything about _kill_. He's missing, and you're looking quite guilty Miss Everdeen."

"Why? Because of my dad's business? Because we have a warehouse down here? Anybody could have gotten in there- it's not hard to break that rusty old chain. I haven't been down there in years!"

"Then how do you know that the chain is rusty?" Johanna questioned, leaning back again.

"Because that's common sense? Anyway, if I was going to do this I would have done it back in high school!" Katniss snapped.

"Watch your tone, or you'll be taking a little ride downtown with me. Maybe you'd never thought of it until now. Maybe you were building up the courage. Maybe he pissed you off even more recently. Maybe he-"

"It wasn't me!" Katniss pulled on her hair in frustration.

"Let's get the easier questions out of the way then, Everdeen." Johanna pulled out her notepad and pen. "Why do you hate Cato Evans?"

"Because…" Katniss hesitated. She looked around the room uncomfortably and sighed. "My boyfriend Peeta loves football. Back in high school Cato was the starting quarterback, ever since sophomore year. Peeta deserved that spot way more than Cato did! Peeta's nice, and kind, and…Well, Panem Town offered Cato and scholarship and Peeta didn't even get in at all. It made me hate Cato even more, but I had nothing to do with this!"

"Fish oil was used. That indicates that you had some involvement with this."

"I didn't. I hate my dad- I don't even want the stupid business. I want nothing to do with it, because I want to make my own way. I want to be a professional archer, in the Olympics and stuff. I wouldn't risk my scholarship and all my opportunities by doing this. You know, it's possible to hate someone and _not _kill them."

"Hmm. Who do you think could be involved?" Johanna asked, her final question.

"Clove. Clove Wright. She's his girlfriend, but everyone knows he was about to leave he for Glimmer Carvalho, the Brazilian transfer." Katniss explained after a moment's hesitation.

"Thank you, Miss Everdeen. Don't skip town- I'll be in touch."

…

Back at the precinct, Johanna found Beetee eating a cheese sandwich at his desk.

"Beets." She called, startling him.

"Detective." He nodded to her, and put his sandwich back in his lunch tin.

"Have you got into Evans' laptop yet?" Johanna asked. She perched herself on the edge of his desk and watched as he pulled up a file.

"Not yet. I'm trialling a software that should get us in, though. We found this in the passenger seat car door."

Johanna leaned in to look at the picture on the computer screen. "It's a newspaper."

"You sound unimpressed." Beetee stated. "But this tells us that we were right, his car went in three days ago."

"So why did nobody report him missing?" Johanna asked, rubbing her chin thoughtfully.

"Exactly." Beetee said, spinning his chair around so that he was facing Johanna.

"I think I should talk to the roommate again. I want to talk to the girlfriend first though, and then the rumoured love interest. Pull up what you can on the Panem Town database on Clove Wright." Johanna instructed. Just because she was the youngest detective on the force didn't mean that she was any less commanding. She was definitely the scariest.

"The Panem Town database says she lives here." Beetee pointed at her address. "On campus. She's in her second year. She's the head cheerleader, but she's on the debate team and long distance track as well. She's studying sports medicine, but she's there on a cheerleading scholarship."

"Okay. Thanks, Beets." Johanna jumped off of her desk and slid her sunglasses off her head and over her eyes. It was time to go ask some more questions.

"Wait- Johanna." Beetee stopped her.

"Hm?"

"Clove's already here. A uniform brought her in, she was caught fighting in the street." Beetee said, reading through his emails.

"Oh. Convenient." That made her job just that much easier.


	3. Chapter 3

**I don't own The Hunger Games.**

"I didn't start it, I'm not a criminal, and I want that bitch locked up!"

Detective Johanna Mason was greeted by a rather angry dark haired girl when she walked into the interrogation room. She was slightly red in the face and her icy glare didn't break even when it met the Detective's own death stare.

"Would you like to explain to me exactly what happened, Miss Wright?" All Johanna knew was that Clove had been brought in for getting into fight.

"She just went crazy and attacked me! She kept saying how it was all my fault and that I'd ruined everything! She's a psycho and she bolted as soon as that cop car showed up. Of course I fought back, she freaking attacked me! I shouldn't be in here, it should be her. I want to press charges!" Clove exploded with information, her glare only growing deadlier.

"And who might this attacker be?" Johanna asked, pulling her notepad and pen from her pocket.

"Do you even have to ask?" Clove scoffed. "Glimmer Carvalho, of course."

"Was she blaming you for the mysterious disappearance of Cato Evans? Your boyfriend?" Johanna asked, not even glancing up at her.

"Wait…What? Cato's gone? _What?_" Clove frowned in confusion. "I thought he was just…Why didn't anybody tell me?!"

"You just thought he was what, Miss Wright?" Johanna looked at the girl suspiciously. She must have known that her own boyfriend was missing, surely.

"I thought he was just taking some time away, at his parents' house maybe. A breather. College is tough, especially in our situation. So…When did this happen?" Clove raked a shaky hand through her black hair. To the eyes of the youngest detective on the force, the girl looked broken.

"We recovered his car from the lake yesterday morning, but we believe that it had been in there for three days prior to that. His brakes were cut and he slid in a puddle of fish oil, which caused him to lose control." She explained, watching for Clove's reaction.

"Oh my God." Clove's hand hovered in front of her horrified face. "Fish oil…Katniss Everdeen! She-"

"I have already spoken to Miss Everdeen. Now I want to talk to you, Miss Wright." Johanna smiled sinisterly at Clove and leaned forwards. "So tell me. What's the story with you and Mr Evans?"

"We got together halfway through senior year. It's not been easy for us, but we've stayed together for this long and-"

"Anything to do with Carvalho?"

"Do you wanna _not _interrupt me?" Clove snapped at Johanna. Slowly, the detective reached into her pocket and retrieved her sunglasses. She pushed them up her nose, only breaking eye contact with Clove when the girl could no longer tell.

"I do what I want." She said threateningly. "Now answer the question, or I'll book you for obstructing justice."

"Whatever. And no, she wasn't a problem for us. He met her in Brazil a few weeks before his seventeenth birthday- we were just friends at the time. They dated whilst he was there for four weeks and then they tried to do the long distance thing. It all broke down after a month and he never mentioned her again. We got together the following school year and now we've been together for almost two years. Except, she transferred to Panem two months ago." Clove explained, sipping her water occasionally.

"That cause issues between the two of you?" Johanna asked, making notes as Clove spoke.

"At first, no. He told me he'd never leave me, that he loved me too much. But then he started talking to her again and whatever he felt for her before came back in pieces. It got hard for us because he had feelings for us both- he loved me, but Glimmer was his 'what if?' girl. Everybody assumed he was going to leave me for her."

"Why's that?"

"Well, you'll know when you see here. And because…Well, things were hard for us. We were both under a lot of pressure."

"Explain." Johanna instructed, flipping the page on her notebook.

"I'm head cheerleader, he's a football player. In high school that means you're meant to be. In college, it just means that you both burn yourself out every day trying your best with your sport and studying for different majors. It was a strain, but I knew I had to make it work. I just couldn't lose him." Clove's head dropped into her hands and she let out a long sigh. When she looked up again, there were tears in her eyes.

"I don't know what I'll do if he doesn't make it back to me."

"But he was leaving you anyway, no? He was going to run off into the sunset with Glimmer Carvalho, and you couldn't let that happen." Johanna used her words to poke at her, urging her to take the bait.

"He wasn't going back to that skank!" Clove shot Johanna an icy glare as she slammed her fist down onto the table top. "He _loves _me. I know he does!"

"Clearly not very much, if he started talking to Glimmer again."

"Don't go there with me." Clove tried to sound fierce, but her voice cracked.

"He was falling for her all over again and you couldn't stand to see it. You-"

"Stop! Please!" Clove dropped her head into her folded arms atop the table and sobbed quietly. "He wouldn't do that."

"Tell me about the classes the two of you took." Johanna said after a few minutes of Clove crying.

"I take biology as my major and cheer as my minor- I'm here on a cheer scholarship. Cato's on a football scholarship so he's on the team and studies sports management, not that he's interested in anything but actually playing." Clove raised her head and explained to Johanna.

"Any other activities?"

"Well, I'm obviously captain of the cheer squad, and he's on the football team. We have to be on those teams because of our scholarships. I waitress on weekends at the campus café and he works as a kids' football coach in the next town over. It's like a twenty minute trip there, and he enjoys it. He was in a frat for the first six months of college, but he dropped out and started to room with Finnick instead. They had a huge argument a few weeks ago though." Johanna furiously scribbled down notes with her pencil as Clove spoke.

"About what? Any details can help with the case." Johanna asked patiently.

"I'm not really sure, he wouldn't talk about but- Oh my God!" Clove cut off mid-sentence, her eyes wide.

"What?" Johanna straightened bolt upright in her chair.

"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God! Finnick…He…He…" Clove was unable to finish her sentence, she was shaking so hard.

"What is it, Clove?" Johanna tried her best not to get irritated.

"Finnick's father is a cod fisherman. I'm just realizing what that means." Clove bit her lip, her eyes still wide as saucers.

"The fish oil…" Johanna muttered. Fish oil came from the livers of a few species of fish- cod being one of them.

"I think I need to have another word with Mr Odair." Johanna flipped her notebook shut. "In the meantime, Miss Wright, give me one good reason why you weren't responsible for this. It seems to me like everything was about to fall apart for the two of you."

"That's exactly why I _didn't _do it." Clove snapped at her, forever on the defensive. "I love him, and I need him now more than ever. Whether he was gonna leave me or not, which he wasn't, he wasn't going to just up and drop me completely. I was still going to have in my life. Why would I want him gone when I'm dropping out of college in a few months anyway?"

"Why are you doing that?" Johanna asked, the dark sunglasses hiding her surprise.

"Because." Clove stood up from her chair, revealing a small rounded baby bump. "I'm not exactly going to be a good head cheerleader anymore, am I?"


End file.
